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Friday, October 29, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Money matters
University system funding panel gets down to business.
Steve Sisolak didn't win many friends up north when as a newly elected regent from Las Vegas he pointed out earlier this year the obvious inequities in state funding between UNLV and UNR.
It was a gutsy thing to do -- and an issue that deserved attention. Numbers eventually showed that the state provided UNR with $3,160 more per student than UNLV. The inequity was even greater at the two-year level, where the rapidly growing Community College of Southern Nevada was losing out to campuses in Elko and the Lake Tahoe area.
Mr. Sisolak's harping paid off. During the past legislative session, lawmakers couldn't ignore the issue. They reduced the UNLV-UNR disparity by about 4 percent (a pittance, but a start) and created a committee to review the university system funding formulas.
The committee's commitment to equity remains to be seen -- state Sen. Bill Raggio, the powerful Reno Republican and majority leader of the upper house, chairs the panel and has built a career ensuring state tax dollars flow north. And at the 16-member board's first meeting this week, Sen. Raggio let it be known that he views arguments about regional or sectional differences as counterproduc- tive.
Say what? True, board members must not let matters degenerate into finger-pointing or name calling between northern and southern representatives. But the panel owes its very existence to the controversy over regional differences in university funding -- how can the issue be avoided if the committee is to do its job?
Sen. Raggio also insisted the committee must confine itself to reviewing the state's higher education funding formulas and ignore calls to agitate for higher taxes to beef up Carson City's support for Nevada universities and community colleges. In addition, he said he won't allow the panel to review whether Nevada ought to increase the percentage of the state budget that it spends on higher education.
Sen. Raggio is right on target here. Such side issues would only distract the committee from the matter at hand: Are the state funding formulas equitable given Southern Nevada's rapid growth, or do they perpetuate an unfair disparity between northern and southern schools?
The answer seems obvious. Now let's see what the panel concludes.
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